What Are Others Saying About You?

“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

Most of us grew up hearing that platitude, especially after getting our feelings hurt by someone’s harsh words, racial slurs, verbal put-downs or derogatory name-calling. And even when the cliché was piously spoken to us, we knew it wasn’t true. Words hurt! In fact, the bruises of sticks and stones often heal faster and more completely than the damage caused by the powerful weapon of hurtful words.

The Role of Reputation

In case you didn’t know, the same is true for your business. It matters what others are saying (and thinking, and feeling, and doing) about your company. And it’s this reality that makes up a significant part of the function of public relations. It is part of the role of PR to “listen” to what’s being said about you and your company and to respond with what you want them to know. It’s about reputation! This involved what other think of you, your organization, your brand, your product, your service… You get the picture.

We all know this principle when it comes to something like good customer service. How long does it take to build a good customer? On the flip side, how difficult is it to regain a disgruntled customer? Because of that, we must keep working to give good service. The same is true of our reputation: it takes time to build it, but can be damage very quickly. And once damaged, it’s not always so easy to restore. We don’t have to look far for glaring examples of this.

The Rules of Reputation

It’s important when thinking about what others are saying about you, to take an aggressive approach. Don’t wait! You must decide what you want them to know, and work to make that a reality. Consider these important steps to developing and maintaining a successful reputation

Define your company. Call it “brand” or vision or mission, but every company should have a clear statement of who they are and what they want to be. How will you know if your reputation is being damaged if you can’t define what it is? And based on these statements, you can also set up your values, which define what’s important to your organization.

Embody your Vision. Once you have these clear declarations of who you are, it’s time to flesh it out. It’s one thing to say that you value prompt, quality customer service, but are you doing to insure that? If you say that your vision is to be a premier employer and you value employee retention, what specific actions do you have in place that will make that happen? This is where policies, procedures and practices come into play; we do certain things because of who we are! In other words, identity (mission, vision and value) dictate actions, which shouldn’t contradict identity.

Explain & Train. As we discussed in an earlier article, your employees are your first-line of public relations. Once you have defined and refined the statements of your brand/reputation, share them with your office team…often. They should be clear about what the mission and value are and how they play out in everyday work life. In addition, this becomes a wonderful springboard to explain why your organization operates a certain way or why particular policies are in place.

Practice and perform. Many years ago, when I was young, I remember reading an article about thieves who stole a prototype briefcase with a built-in telephone. Of course, this was long before the advent of cell phone technology, so the item was a one-of-a-kind and very expensive. Fortunately, the police were able to catch the criminals quickly by tracing the many phone calls they were make from the pilfered device. The spokesperson for the police department said they were apprehended because they did too much talking and not enough walking.

It’s not enough to define what you want your reputation to be, and putting corresponding policies into place is not enough. You can’t even stop with training your employees. You have to…wait for it…DO IT every day! Others won’t see your intention or your policy manual; they will see what you do on a daily basis. Make sure that you, your team and your company is performing according to the mission, vision and values that define what you want to be.

Listen! This leads us to the original question in the title of this installment. What are others saying about you? As the old adage goes, we’ve been given one mouth and two ears, which indicates we were meant to listen twice as much as we talk. It’s important to learn what your employees, your vendors and your customers are saying about you. The best way to do that is to ask. If one-on-one discussion is not possible, you might consider a survey. Look at the results with a view to understand how well your concept of your reputation is translating to other’s perception.

Consider also expanding your scope of “listening” to what others outside your office are saying. What is the media saying about you, your company, your products, your industry? What is the competition saying, either direct or implied? One way to do this is with a clipping service. This is a business who will read all your local publications, looking for any references to you organization, using keywords that you define for them. Check your local newspapers for services in your area. Some concentrate on the local publications, while others can give you national service. If you are actively sending out news releases, it would worth the investment to monitor what’s being said.

Reinforce. If you are hearing anything negative, or if nothing is being said, it’s time to reinforce your reputation. More employee training might be needed. Greater visibility could be the answer. Ongoing PR would be helpful. The goal of “listening” is to make any changes necessary to build on the tenets of your mission, vision and values.

Protect & Defend. What’s more important than your reputation? The truth is clear: lose your reputation and it doesn’t matter the quality of your products, the speed of your service, the size of your staff or the retail value of your property. You are the “police of your reputation” and you must be vigilant to protect it. If you not you, who else?


Sticks and stones can indeed break your bones, but the negative words of those who are talking about your business can hurt you in ways that cannot be measured. Time, energy and money spent on preventing the damage will be nothing compared to what it will cost to heal the pain of a damaged or destroyed reputation.


What would you add to this discussion about reputation?
I welcome your thoughts, insights, comments or questions. I would especially like to see hear some of your experiences.

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Next: Speaking of reputation, how do we respond to online complaints?